Happy Holidays from Road to Parnassus and from Painesville, Ohio!

  

After a long hiatus in posting, I want to wish you all a happy Holiday season!  As my gift, I am sending you all this cheery Holiday fireplace. Those in cold areas can use an extra one, and those lucky to be in warm places can regard this as a virtual fireplace. 

Here is the entire bag of fireplace fuel. You will notice that this comes from the Nickel Plate Coal and Supply Company in Painesville, Ohio. Some readers may remember an older post in which I visited the charming city of Painesville. 

The Nickel Plate Coal and Supply Company was presumably connected with the Nickel Plate Railroad, although perhaps in name only. The Nickel Plate was important to Ohio and Cleveland history. In the early 1900’s, the Van Sweringen brothers obtained control of the Nickel Plate because they needed its right-of-way into Cleveland in order to develop a streetcar line for the now-famous new suburb they were developing, Shaker Heights.

There was also a Nickel Plate Milling Company in Painesville, which produced flour.  Here is a vignette from one of their old envelopes:

They produced this lapel pin for a complicated promotion at the Lake County Fair (held in Painesville, where else?). They gave out these numbered badges to fair-goers, and if you found someone with the same number, you each got a free bag of flour. I have a few of these in my Painesville collection, but so far no matching set.

I realize that this fireplace gift is a rather ambiguous one. The bag presumably contained coal, and coal is the traditionally prescribed gift for naughty boys and girls. So you will have to decide for yourself how this applies to you. Of course, as fossil fuels get rarer, there is now an implied degree of generosity in a gift of coal.

Once again, let me wish you a very pleasant holiday, and a happy and healthy New Year for 2019!

(All photos and original objects collection of the author.)

 

A perfect day in Painesville, Ohio

Time seems to melt away when you visit Painesville.  I always like to spend a day there, and recently my friend Marc and I took a little road trip. Painesville still has an old-fashioned small town feel, with its domed courthouse and city hall facing a central green, blocks of Victorian stores, and Greek Revival houses. It was the home of famed Western Reserve architect Jonathan Goldsmith (1784-1847), responsible for many of the most attractive buildings in Painesville, Mentor, Willoughby, and early Cleveland.

About 30 miles east of Cleveland, Painesville was settled in the early 1800’s  and is the seat of Lake County. Fans of Clarence Day Jr.’s memoir Life with Father will be interested to know that Vinnie Day came from Painesville, and that Clarence Sr. often joked about rescuing her from a small, provincial town.

The city was named not after Thomas Paine, but rather after General Edward Paine (1746-1841), and we encountered this statue of him as we entered the city:

General Edward Paine, founder of Painesville

The plaque from the base of the statue, with more information about Paine. (Click to enlarge any photos.)

 

We first stopped for a pleasant lunch at the Rider Inn, which dates back to 1812. The Inn was enlarged several times over the years, most importantly in 1832, when Jonathan Goldsmith gave it substantially its present form.

 

After lunch, we did some browsing at the antique shop next door, then headed for the campus of Lake Erie College. My main goal there was to visit the 1829 Dr. John Mathews house, also by Goldsmith. This house has always been one of my top favorites, and I will cover it more closely in a future post.

The John Mathews House, 1829

 

We then walked over to the main part of the campus. College Hall is the main landmark building, dating from 1857. A pleasant surprise is the back of this building, facing a less-formal grassy area. The wide, shady porch is supplied with a row of rocking chairs, which proved so comfortable we had to force ourselves to get up and continue our tour.

Lake Erie College

Lake Erie's reception rooms retain many of their original features

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An unusual Gothic radiator.

The back porch wasn't curved, but this was cut from a panoramic shot.

The area near the college is enjoyable to walk around, with tree-lined streets and many fine old houses.

This Queen Anne has some unusual architectural features.

A very large and magnificent tree.

The Second Empire Steele house was sadly gutted by fire a while back, but it is nice to see that they are working on restoring it:

 

The Grand River flows right through Painesville, and is a place I love to explore and hike around, although that day we could only give it a couple of hours. Because of the drought, the water level was amazingly low, only a few inches at its deepest point. This used to be the site of a very  old mill, and the stone foundation wall is still visible, giving an agreeable touch of antiquity.

The Grand River at a very low ebb. We used to fish here.

All that's left of the old mill.

The old sluiceway can still be clearly seen in the ruins.

The Painesville Mill in earlier days--the square sluiceways can be clearly discerned.

A fitting end to this day was a short trip north to Lake Erie and the small town of Grand River (population 345) for a dinner of fresh Lake Erie yellow perch at Brennan’s Fish House.

If you get to northern Ohio, be sure to make some time for Painesville; with so much left of its early history it is fun to revisit the 19^th century and the early days of the Western Reserve.